Oil Markets Are Destroying Themselves

We’re still in the midst of watching the oil industry unravel in spectacular fashion. I do not feel comfortable even uttering the word “bottom”, not even in jest, for the fear the entire structure would unwind and usher in $10 oil for two decades.

We need more expensive oil. I know you do not want to hear that; why just a few weeks ago I saw a long dormant Hummer H3 roaming the tundra planes of southeast Michigan. A once formidable species, these vehicles could once be seen all across the North American continent.

Their reemergence was a startling sign. Gasoline has gotten cheap.

It is comforting to think of these lower input costs as an unchallenged blessing to America. It is more complicated than that, I am afraid.

High oil prices have been one of very few elements that has actually helped foster stability in third world countries. Watching the recent turmoil and wars, it is easy to forget just how unnaturally peaceful the most recent decades have been in the grand scheme of things. Oil money has been used to weave the social fabric in these places and if oil prices stay low for a sustained period, we are going to see much more egregious cases of foreign sovereign collapse.

Oil prices have also driven the US recovery. The shale revolution was named thusly for a reason; job growth in the US would not have been possible without the advances in shale oil. This is a major pillar of the US recovery and without it our economy is going to suffer. High input costs were a minor inconvenience that came with job growth.

And of course there is the euro. The euro may just be the cause of the oil collapse in and of itself. I cannot say for certain yet, but I am suspicious. The euro and dollar are now almost at parity and this has crippled US exporters. If our own markets are suddenly sloshing around with oil to spare, it is because we are suddenly priced out of foreign markets. This is a precarious barrier…how cheap would oil need to be in this country to enable exporters to compete against euro/dollar parity? The dollar is going to isolate our business and tank us if we let this continue.

We need to start taking steps to regain stability. Bernanke would have never let this happen. Yellen is pushing for normalization of policy and this is not a bad thing. But they are far too comfortable watching a currency move like this happen with our probably largest trade group. We need a weaker dollar and we need more expensive oil and we need it now.

Now, because oil is so cheap, struggling shale producers are clocking overtime to meet payments. This is the exact opposite of what the oil markets need to find a bottom – a glut of even more oil.

In addition to addressing currency and demand issues, we really need a JP Morgan figure to emerge and start brokering some M&A moves that stitch up the supply side. Oil markets are leaking supply uncontrollably and this is going to cause extensive damage if not treated like the dire risk that it is.

The weak hands need to be either bought out or flushed or secured with long term financing. If we can’t shut some of these wells off, we’re going to have irreparable damage on our hands.

There was a time just a few years ago when it was quite fashionable to talk about the European Debt Crisis. Why, we would wake up in the morning, have a spot of tea, some toast and some eggs, then jabber on until noon of eurocrises and pending doom of “The Old World”.

Around that time, I made a prediction that the euro would trade to parity against the dollar. It wasn’t something I could really trade on, since the only available products were untrustworthy scams and the timeline was long and unpredictable.

Here’s the link to the last time I mentioned the call, back in 2012. I suspended it because the then idiot Tea Party freshmen decided to destroy the credibility of the US government and we were still in the middle of easing programs designed to destroy the US dollar.

But I warned then, the future would be full of sudden shocks where the EURUSD would be prone to collapse and near parity. Well, here we are, with the EURUSD rate just now hitting 1.07 today.

This is the key reason why our markets are so volatile right now; especially true for commodities. Oil doesn’t know up from down specifically. The balance of trade is being thrown off.

This ends with stability of currencies. We don’t need the old EURUSD range back per se. We just need the bleeding to stop so we can find a new equilibrium.

Everything I own is sharply lower as apparently American’s gaining employment is something to be feared.

I will try to explain this to you. The reason we have had no inflation before now is because even as the monetary supply rocketed to untold heights, the velocity of money was collapsing. All of the deflationists have been harping on the sound money crowd because they believe they can control employment levels by printing ugly pictures of dead people (which is stupid).

Now that employment is regaining its stride, Americans will have more to spend, and you can probably expect the velocity of money to start picking back up. In fact, if you just bother to look at my new position OMAB, flight volumes are surging to vacation destinations as an example.

We have made much ado about the ever higher levels of debt owed by Americans. Well the numbers aren’t really that bad either. Does an extra $300 of credit card debt on average per year really signify the end times? The debt has almost no carrying cost at the moment; even average citizens can take hold of these zero percent interest rates in one way or another.

The point, good sir or ma’am, is that the monetary supply outstanding is still quite a bit larger than it was five years ago and there is no good strategy to unwind that. Employment numbers picking up are the first stride to wage growth which will usher in the final stretch of the recovery – inflation.

And that inflation will probably get out of hand, because the probability of a perfectly controlled, centrally planned recovery is exactly zero.

Don’t be surprised if commodities experience a second awakening in the not too distant future.

Yesterday I received reports that uranium U308 spot prices stood at $39.25 per pound as of March 2, 2015. This is a ferocious recovery from the lows of $28.00 in the middle of last year; a rally of 40%.

We are still at least another 50% short of where uranium spot was trading when the Fukushima reactor melted down. Still, this price recovery is constructive.

The recovery in uranium miners has taken longer than I expected. Certainly I was aware that this might happen, but I took early positioning because I figured there were better odds of the market pricing in a recovery early on. Instead, fearing the “Chernobyl Syndrome”, the market curled up into a fetal position and didn’t move for four years.

I remain long CCJ and, despite being very disappointed with the short sighted antics of their upper management, am willing to continue holding out for gains. CCJ’s operations continue to perform beyond reasonable expectations, all things considered.

After CCJ hits $30, I will donate a portion of the proceeds to the Canadian tax agency to offset the cost of chaining their Board of Directors and tossing them into a pit of despair.

Today BAS was up 4.5%. I’d normally be elated by this kind of action, but I am not.

Because last Wednesday BAS was 20% lower. And the week before that BAS was where it is today. And the week before that BAS was 20% lower.

In fact I’d say generally speaking that watching a stock ratchet between $5 and $8 is a generally tempestuous experience that does things to mans sanity. Dark things. Quiet things.

Dark, quiet things.

I want those dark things to be done to oil short sellers now. He says to himself, slowly rocking in his 9th floor prison.

I purchased OMAB, a Mexican airline company, is December of last year. OMAB has been putting up strong performance numbers and yet remains very much off the radar of most investors. They have control of some key geographical regions; hotspot destinations for vacationers.

Passenger traffic grew greater than 14% alone in the fourth quarter of 2014, year over year. The 2014 year showed passenger growth of greater than 10% – accelerating into year end.

Income from operations grew 56% in the fourth quarter of 2014 year over year, and total 2014 income increased 23%. Revenues grew 6% in the fourth quarter versus 9% for the 2014 year. Adjusted EBITA were up 14% in the fourth quarter and up 13% year over year.

OMAB is growing fast and aggressively and yet is still priced very competitively.

Thanks to lower fuel prices, OMAB is blessed with strong wind behind their sales. You could also reasonably make the case that stronger consumers are finally making time for long put-off vacations. OMAB is growing amenities in airport locations to expand non-core revenue.

Naturally I am looking forward to see how they do in 2015.

Note: I apologize for being somewhat absent the past few weeks. My wife had some health complications which have consumed vast amounts of my time.